Theatre goers are likely to demand an immediate placement of the Yoruba classical movie, Olowo Ana, in cinemas across the Yoruba-speaking world, and beyond, after reading this film review.
Admirers of Professor Ayobami Akinwale, Dele Odule, Odunlade Adekola, Femi Adebayo, Ronke Odusanya, Lekan Olatunji, Taiwo Aromokun, Owolabi Ajasa, Kolawole Ajeyemi, Bolaji Amusan, Lanre Hassan, Bukola Adeeyo, Segun Ogungbe, Kayode Akindina, Bose Aregbesola, Tunde Sobayo, Biola Adekunle, and several other distinguished actors in the movie would be thrilled that their idolized thespians are reachable to give them maximum worth for their Naira.
Film Review: Olowo Ana and its web of tragedies
The storyline of this heartrending string of multiple tragedies is simple and straightforward, while its complications and complexities derive in its elaborate deployment of flashbacks and recalls which confirms the story-teller, the writer of this epic drama, Odunlade Adekola, as a master and reflective thinker.
Olowo Ana is not located in any town or village or country, even though, the drama uses Yoruba Language as its medium of expression; it fits in any language, any culture and any country which registers its universality of appeal and consequence.
An eccentric rich man, Adelani (Dele Odule) is indulged by his two sons, Bolaji and Dotun (Femi Adebayo and Lekan Olatunji) who rival each other in the display of affection and appreciation for their father and thus demand he should leave his mansion and spend his life in rotational stay in their respective residences. A simple proposition.
The younger brother (Dotun) poisons himself and dies with blood spouting out of his mouth. Shortly afterwards, the elder brother engages in a minor squabble with his wife, Folake (Ronke Odusanya), who reaches for a kitchen knife and stabs him to death.
The rich man’s eccentricity gets compounded. He seeks solace in newspapers; his pastime, and his common saying: ‘we must thank God in every situation and circumstance’.
The other protagonist, Bolagbade (Professor Ayo Akinwale), an exemplar of stoicism and equanimity, receives his first tragedy with the unwarranted mob-execution of his son, Akin a.k.a. Gentle (Sunkanmi), who was killed for an offence he did not commit by Awilo (Kolawole Ajeyemi).
His daughter, Olayemi (Taiwo Aromokun), is first afflicted with a strange illness which throws him into agony and confusion. His first son, Bayo (Odunlade Adekola), vanishes without a trace, but suddenly returns from the US.
On the very day of his arrival to the euphoric embrace of his sisters and father, a noxious neighbourhood gangster accosts him and he, in his characteristic temperament, pushes off the gangster who falls, slumps and dies. Euphoria evaporates and the returnee is sent to 30-year imprisonment.
In her desperation to source for money to offset hospital bills incurred by her ailing father, the younger daughter, Labisi (Bukky Adeeyo), falls into armed robbers led by Skipo (Kayode Akindina) who kills her for refusing to be raped.
Second daughter, the same Olayemi is conned by a suitor, Olanrewaju (Segun Ogungbe), who arranges her execution, inadvertently, for money-making rituals.
The returnee son is released by the state, and a few days before leaving the prison on official Clemency, his temperament leads him to another murder, necessitating his death-sentence by Judge, Lanre Hassan.
Throughout the duration of these tragedies, the protagonist displays a very unusual and incredible, almost supernatural equanimity. Not tears. Not a single drop.
In the end, this second protagonist consults seers and diviners to seek both the remote causes and solution to his barrage of tragedies. He is instructed to throw a charmed stone on the roof of any house and all his woes would immediately relocate to the occupants of such a building.
The lesson in the didactic tragic drama is two-fold here; excessive temper destroys. While one should not throw a stone into the market place; because it always invariably falls on the head of a closest kin.
Akinwale was the one who threw a stone onto the roof of Odule, and the consequences, too gruesome to recount is the cornerstone of Odunlade’s pedagogue. Cinema goers must go to the theatre to encounter the unfolding scenes.
This is a very great drama for all time, for all seasons and for all climes. It is built on a well-conceived story; a story very true to life and its narration as a dramatic piece, extremely natural. A human story. A human tragedy. Credit here goes to the film writer, Odunlade Adekola.
The acting and general role interpretations do a great justice to the man who did the casting and allocated roles.
The drama is full of suspense and one is kept on edge as each episode unfolds and yields grounds to other episodes while the audience/viewer is glued to his seat and his eyes glued to the screen while his heartbeat jumps to its frightening crescendo. Credit for the masterly production and direction goes also to Odunlade Adekola.
The greatest weakness of the movie is ironically, paradoxically, its greatest strength. Devoid of the elaborateness of make-belief phantasmagoria and cinematographic excesses, Olowo Ana is set in the most natural atmosphere such that its interpreters of characters and roles are most naturalistic and viewers are compelled to see themselves as partakers and participants in the unfolding drama.
This is where kudos must be given to the producers and directors of this film. This film must go places. I recommend that the writer of this epic drama should adapt it into both a novel and a play for secondary schools and tertiary institutions.
While YouTube serves its intended purposes, it does not do sufficient justice to this magnificent drama. This is a film where even seers and diviners act moderately within credibility and the entire cast work harmoniously to produce the most enduring classics.
Ayobami Akinwale shows class, shows maturity. He makes it difficult for viewers to remember they are in a theatre, or that they are watching a movie. He absorbs them into his character; sucks them into his persona, and makes them sit in his living-room as partakers of his pain and sorrow. This is excellent naturalistic acting.
Dele Odule, old man of the theatre, can never be separated from his ready humour. Even in the most tragic of tragedies, Odule charms his audiences. And it is so with his constant refrain ‘we must thank God in all things’. He and Akinwale compliment each other. A very jocund sad man in a web with a laconic but stoic suicidal unfortunate persona.
•High Chief Adeniyi, a renowned actor, playwright, director/producer and dancer in his hey days, is the Chairman Board of Trustees, ‘Tola Adeniyi Foundation for Theatre and the Arts’ (TAFTA) and was a Visiting Lecturer, Department of Theatre Studies, Lancaster University, UK.
